A $3500 salary boost for NSW's low-paid health workers will not cost taxpayers an extra cent, the state's health minister says.
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The agreement struck between the health minister and Health Services Union on Friday morning came as the union threatened industrial action across the state's hospitals next week.
The government's offer to boost eligible health workers' base salaries by $67 a week, rather than a percentage increase, would deliver the sector's lowest-paid workers the biggest relative boost.
The deal will not apply to doctors and nurses but covers workers ranging from cleaners to hospital clerks, security officers and allied health professionals.
HSU members will not get more than other public service employees, Health Minister Ryan Park said, with the only difference being the distribution of the four per cent pay rise among workers.
"We're not changing the total, we're not changing the quota. It means those on lower incomes get more while those on higher incomes don't get as much," he said.
The government's four per cent offer will still apply to paramedics, but they will seek pay parity with interstate counterparts when they meet with government in nine days.
The union's state secretary Gerard Hayes said he was asking members who were paid in the $150,000-per-year range to "do me a favour".
"Help me look after these people who are struggling," he said.
The government had offered all public sector workers a four per cent raise, backdated to July 1.
But it recently opened the door to tweaking the offer sector by sector as long as the overall cost didn't change.
HSU members will pause plans for industrial action as they consider whether to accept the $3500 offer on Monday.
The union represents more than 90,000 health workers not covered by doctors' or nurses' unions.
Mr Hayes said it was an amazing day for those health workers earning about $52,000 a year.
"These are the security officers who get bashed every day, these are the cleaners who kept COVID out of hospitals," he said.
The union representing doctors in NSW, whose members voted in favour of the government's four per cent wage rise, welcomed the funding offer to their allied health counterparts.
"This is a good outcome for some of the lowest paid health staff in NSW," said Tony Sara, president of the Australian Salaried Medical Officers Federation NSW branch.
The battle reached new heights this week when HSU delegates heckled the architect of the government's four per cent offer, Treasurer Daniel Mookhey, as he addressed the union's annual conference.
The treasurer this week began weaning the health department off a system that meant half of workers' tax savings in salary-sacrificing went into government hands.
The tweak, worth $18 million this year, means eligible workers will get about $10 extra a week into their bank accounts.
But Mr Hayes wants the "morally" wrong tax grab completely ditched within three years.
The state opposition has criticised the government for its public stoush with the HSU, claiming it stemmed from the "huge" pay promises Labor made in the lead-up to the March election.
Friday's offer set a dangerous precedent, shadow treasurer Matt Kean said as he called for more transparency on whether other public servants will be eligible for the payments.
"If unions threaten to go on strike, then (Premier) Chris Minns will just throw money at them to make the problem go away," he told reporters.
Australian Associated Press
